Petrography Slide Preparation

SRC’s Advanced Microanalysis Centre™ provides a wide range of petrographic services, from preparing premium polished and standard thin sections to complete petrographic reporting. SRC has the only CNSC-licenced facility for thin section preparation in Canada.

Samples are prepared to high standards from various types of rock and minerals, which can provide valuable insight useful in determining exploration and economic potential, particularly on difficult to work with geographic materials, such as:

  • Clay-altered samples
  • Uranium ore and other radioactive materials (CNSC-licensed facility)
  • Kimberlite
  • Base metal sulphide ores

All thin sections and grain mounts are highly polished for reflected light microscopy, SEM, EPMA and laser ablation ICP-MS analysis.

View our service schedule to learn more about our services:

  • Grain mount preparation
  • Petrographic thin section
  • Samples requiring special processing

digital petrography

Petrographic analyses are done by QEMSCAN® using an FEI Quanta 650 scanning electron microscope fitted with a field emission gun (9 nm resolution) and dual Bruker X-Flash 5030 energy dispersive spectrometers giving a maximum throughput of 1.5 Mbps.

  • Modal mineralogy
  • Porosity
  • Mineralogy map
  • Average grain size
  • Rock classification
  • Analytical statistics

Key Features

  • Wide range of manual lapping and polishing equipment in order to successfully process difficult samples
  • Automated precision lapping and polishing equipment ensures samples are prepared to optimal thickness and flatness

Contact us today to schedule your service.